August Alonzo ~ Monks_MysticsTwo Unities"That
which the scientist calls the Infinite, the artist calls
Love, and
the religious person calls God, are all One in the
same."~ Hazrat Inayat
Khan, Sufi Master ~

"Meditation has one object only, namely
to prepare the mind
to get out of all suffering, to prepare it for
liberation.
It is a means to this end and not for pleasant
experiences.
Those do happen, and why not? Let us be grateful for
them,
very grateful that they do happen and that they give us
the
impetus to continue. But when they don't happen, that
doesn't matter either. The mind has to have meditation
training in order to become liberated."

~ Ayya Khema ~

From
the book, "Being Nobody Going Nowhere,"
published by
Wisdom Publications.

Jerry Katz ~ NondualitySalon

a question

Someone sent me the following
question. I've included my reply and invite
others. I'll send the responses to him. By the
way, whenever I do this type of thing, and send a
bunch of replies to the questioner, I rarely,
ifever, hear back from the them, in case anyone's
wondering. But they're fun.

------------------------------------------

I have a question that has been puzzling me for
quite a while- I was wondering whether you might
be able to answer it or maybe you know someone
who can- The question is- What happens when the
experiencer, the process of experiencing and the
experience become one- To have an experience is
dual in nature so I wonder if there is no
possible way of experiencing the highest Supreme
state-which is beyond pure consciousness
(consciousness knowing? and experiencing itself
without any "external" object . Even
consciousness is dual too- Isn't it? Conscious of
what?

Here is what really confuses me-Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj- I have the book " I am
That- The question was: Is the Supreme conscious?
He answers "neither conscious nor
unconscious, I am telling you from
EXPERIENCE"- How can this be- How can you
experience the Supreme if there is no experiencer
to experience this state of oneness?-

I hope my question is coming
through- Its hard to articulate.
Thanks

---------------------------------------

Response from Jerry:

Nisargadatta is telling about reality: it is
neither conscious nor unconscious. Yet he says he
is speaking from experience. Therefore, it is
assumed that reality is an experience you can
have. Contemplate this and see where it takes
you. If it thoroughly puzzles you and knots up
your mind, that's good.

Then shift your attention from this one statement
of his about experience to that which he repeats
over and over and over again. It's possible that
this shift could unknot the mind. Then with the
unknotted mind, re-address your questions.

---------------------------------------

Response from Tim Gerchmez:

From here, this focus on N's exact
wording is nitpicking with words.
It simply sounds to me like an impactful sort of
statement trying to
get across the idea of "direct
experience" (which simply means 'the
Supreme' isn't in the realm of thought and
concept, but transcendent
of that).

Nitpicking words isn't inquiry --
taking words literally (which were
originally a dialogue between N. and some
questioner and in context
with the rest of the discussion) and forming
one's own interpretation
based on what seems important or meaningful about
some particular
word isn't the way to read a book like "I Am
That."

---------------------------------------

Response from James:

In one way or another every sage
says, "Know Thyself".

Yet who or what is going to step
outside oneself to know oneself?

So - the process reveals the
limitations of 'localized'
consciousness and its activity subsides (it
implodes through lack of
support because energy in no longer given to
localized consciousness
when it is seen that it is limited).

This process is a 'Seeing' that sees
the limitations of
'localized' consciousness - when it is no longer
supported it implodes
- what remains is what was there all along - the
Seeing itself.

Thus 'Seeing is Doing' -
Consciousness is its own knowing.

In this light (Seeing)
Nisargadatta's comment, "neither conscious
nor unconscious, I am telling you from
experience", can be understood
as 'Consciousness speaks' - in this case it is
speaking through and as
the form called Nisargadatta.

~~~

I like the way that Atmananda
Krishna Menon says this
"Form is Seeing and Seeing is Being".

---------------------------------------

Response from Jan Barendrecht:

Perhaps memory allows to go back to
childhood, when hearing words like
"experience" and
"experiencer"
would have resulted in a question like:
"what is an experience and what is an
experiencer?"
"If nothing happens, is that an experience
too?"
When memory doesn't allow that, it's most likely
to get caught up for the remainder of life
reading books on spiritual (non)experiences and
subsequently trying to have them too. In that
case, good luck!

That's what i mean: reading a book,
trying to find the proper interpretation and
finding
others (according to Ramana, there are no
others), able to help/support/comment on a
book from a rather different culture.
Why not meditate on "who am i?" for 30
years or so, solitarily in a dwelling like cave?
That will "answer" quite a few other
questions as well, or far better than that,
evaporate
the source whence questions arise as well as the
need for answers.

---------------------------------------

Response from Hur Guler:

most neo-advaita gurus tend to say
"all there is...is consciosness."
sometimes this consciousness is explained by the
neo-advaita teachers
as the "potential energy" from which
all this manifests.

to my knowledge, maharaj sometimes
says the same thing but at other
times for maharaj there was another state beyond
consciousness which
is simply the existence itself. that's why i
believe he liked the
term "i am" since "i am"
suggests that the essence of "i am" is
existence itself.

all we have is consciousness and
this is our only link to existence.
the body/mind reconstructs existence in the
mirror of consciousness.
i don't think this is a mysterious state that
only the masters can
realize. i believe that anyone who's conscious
experiences this
state since existence manifests itself through
consciousness.

Brian Cowan ~
Monks_Mystics

Re: Two Unities

Hello everyone,

As humanphoenix wrote, in part,
in a message dated July 29th:

>Science, which can be easily seen enough in
medical
>science, has a tendency of abandoning
understanding
>of the whole to search for understanding of the
>constituents. In doing so they [i. e.
scientists]
>unfortunately stop seeing them as constituents,
>they are now cells, atoms, electrons, and so forth.
...

In my view, this is a good point. Many (but not
all)
scientists and scientifically inclined persons, by
concentrating on the constituents, lose sight of
the
of the whole.

A spiritual outlook, as I see it, can serve as a
valuable
corrective to the tendency, on the part of some of
those
engaged in scientific pursuits, to get lost in detail
and
so forget all about wholeness. Spirituality, I
believe,
can help us to experience a holistic sense the
cosmos,
to have an intuition into a unitary, animating and
directional Presence permeating all things and
binding
them together into a single whole. In various
traditions
this Presence is given differing names, for
example:
Brahmin, the Buddha Nature, the Tao, the Logos,
the Absolute, etc., etc.

But, for its part, science is useful to spirituality
too.
Thus scientists like Galileo Galilei and Charles
Darwin
helped to wean the Christian spiritual outlook away
from being an outlook which, somewhat narrowly, in
my estimation, regarded scripture as inerrant, as
standing beyond error.

Galileo provided valid evidence (e. g. from a
mathematical
standpoint) in favour of the earth orbiting the
sun,
evidence which, in time, contributed to showing
that
scripture is in error when (for example, at Joshua
10:
12-14) it implies that the sun orbits the earth.

Darwin provided valid evidence (e. g. via fossils,
the
record of the rocks) in favour of an earth that was
millions of years old, evidence which, in time, led
not a few Christians to abandon the notion,
generally
accepted in his day, of a roughly 6,000 year old
world.
In the 17th century a learned Irish Archbishop,
named
James Ussher (1580-1655), had estimated the age of
our planet at about 6,000 years on the basis of
biblical
chronology, and his estimate was, by and large,
accepted for more than two centuries. Now, there
was
nothing wrong with Archbishop Ussher's scholarship.
No one seriously disagrees that, if you assign
reasonable time spans to all of the generations of
people mentioned in scripture, and if you establish
reasonable historical dates for certain events
recorded
in the Bible, you end up with a creation date of
roughly
4,000 BCE. The problem, as we now know, is that the
scriptural chronology lacks accuracy, is in error.

So, it does seem to me that spirituality helps and
complements science and that science helps and
complements spirituality. Thus, on the basis of the
foregoing considerations and examples, we may agree
that spirituality can render science more holistic
and
that science can render a spiritual tradition less
narrow.

Speaking just for myself here, I tend to think of
the
spiritual and the scientific as a little like the two
sides
of one coin.

Scott Reeves ~
AwarenessTheWayToLove & Richard Burnett,
Art

Fantasy

"What
is the greatest enemy of Enlightenment?"

"Fear."

"And where does fear come from?"

"Delusion."

"And what is delusion?"

"To think that the flowers around you
are poisonous snakes."

"How shall I attain
Enlightenment?"

"Open your eyes and see."

"What?"

"That there isn't a single snake
around."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more
joy you
can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was
burned in the
potter's oven? --Kahlil Gibran,
mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

Flower, Doi
Suthep, Northern Thailand

Photo
by Richard Burnett

Scott Reeves ~ AwarenessTheWayToLove

More
Words

"Mark
Twain put it very nicely when he said, "It was so
cold that if the
thermometer had been an inch longer, we would have frozen
to death."

We do
freeze to death on words. It's not the cold outside
that matters, but the
thermometer. It's not reality that matters, but
what you're saying to
yourself about it. I was told a lovely story about
a farmer in
Finland.

When they
were drawing up the Russian-Finnish border, the farmer
had to decide whether he wanted to be in Russia or
Finland. After a long
time he said he wanted to be in Finland, but he didn't
want to offend the
Russian officials..

These
came to him and wanted to know why he wanted to
be in Finland. The farmer replied, "It has
always been my desire to live
in Mother Russia, but at my age I wouldn't be able to
survive another
Russian winter."

Russia
and Finland are only words, concepts, but not for human
beings, not
for crazy human beings. We're almost never looking
at reality. A guru was
once attempting to explain to a crowd how human beings
react to words, feed
on words, live on words, rather than on reality.
One of the men stood up
and protested; he said, "I don't agree that words
have all that much effect
on us." The guru said, "Sit down, you son
of a bitch." The man went livid
with rage and said, "You call yourself an
enlightened person, a guru, a
master, but you ought to be ashamed of
yourself." The guru then said,
"Pardon me, sir, I was carried away. I really
beg your pardon; that was a
lapse; I'm sorry." The man finally calmed
down. Then the guru said, "It
took just a few words to get a whole tempest going within
you; and it took
just a few words to calm you down, didn't it?"
Words, words, words, words,
how imprisoning they are if they're not used
properly."

~ Anthony
de Mello, SJ ~

Joe &
Gary Merrill ~ ConsciousnessIsAll

Re: Pop goes the
balloon / Knowing myself

[Joe]

What is occurring
when I start observing my patterns of behavior,
ideas, beliefs, concerns, etc -- in short, when I observe
all of the
phenomena that comprise "Joe"?I

s this seeing, the
witnessing and understanding yet more images?
Or is there a witness which understands the habit
patterns of this Joe?

Because surely
there is some understanding of Joe's patterns and ego-
maneuverings.

So, maybe this
'understanding' is an image, because when it (the
understanding of Joe image) arises, it is based on my
past behaviors
and thoughts -- and therefore I can say, Joe does this
and that and
thinks this and that... but this is thinking based on the
past and an
image is formed... there's not necessarily anyone behind
the behavior
and thought of Joe, but rather just arisings, and over
time, one can
pick out certain patterns, thumbprints of phenomenal
arising that
signify "Joe"...which may be useful in dealing with day to
day life.

Hmm, so maybe there
is no real way of getting to know oneself better
other than to form new images based on past
'performance'...

Any thoughts
comments? This is an interesting topic, as so many
people assume that they can get to know themselves.

[Gary]

Yes, its this self
assumption that is generally questioned on this
list. Of course if I say it is being questioned by 'me'
then there is
an immediate contradiction. Which is where it gets a bit
funny.

The 'I'ing the
image making isn't done by an image, by an I, but happens
as a function of Totality. It opens the can of worms
regarding free
will, but if there is no 'I' then freedom or bondage
ceases to be a
question.

What you say about
witnessing seems fairly accurate. The witnessing
implying time to look back and catch oneself witnessing,
so its a
story of witnessing never anything in itself. A bit like
feed back, the body/mind feeds back on itself in order to
understand. The notion of an independent observer or self
or object would not be real but part of this feedback
process, part of Totality.

Manuel
Hernandez ~ ANetOfJewels

The
Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

"All
suffering is born of desire. True love is never frustrated.
How can
the sense of unity be frustrated? What can be frustrated is
the desire for
expression. Such desire is of the mind. As with all things
mental,
frustration is inevitable."

Shawn ~
Nisargadatta & Zen OLeary, Art

Craving
experience

.....These four facts of life are meant to
be known, understood,
and realized, seen as they are. Knowing the bare fact
that things
are dissatisfying won't free us from dissatisfaction. The
crucial
part is knowing the Second Noble Truth, which is the
cause of
that dissatisfaction - not the things themselves, since
the
things themselves don't suffer; it is we who suffer. The
cause of
that suffering is clinging, attachment, greed, desire,
resistance,
fixation - whatever you want to call it. It is often
called craving.
The word literally is tanha in Pali (samudaya in
Sanskrit), which
suggests thirst. Because we crave, continually desire and
thirst
for various experiences and things, and because created
things
are never ultimately satisfying, we suffer. That's where
the chain
of suffering can be addressed: whether or not we cling to
things
and crave for experience. It's not that we have to get
rid of the
things themselves. Things are not the problem. It is the
attachment, the identification with things that causes
suffering.
Tilopa wrote, "It is not outer objects which
entangle us. It is inner
clinging which entangles us."

Totality
is...fighting pointless
wars
campaigning for peace
starting the first day at school
collecting an old age pension
hanging out in bars
going into a monastery
on the road to ruin
treading the path to truth
ignorant
enlightened

Love
Gary

Viorica Weissman ~
MillionPathsH.W.L.
Poonja - The Desire for FreedomIf you accidentally catch fire due to an accident, and
you are rushing
to jump into the river , and a friend comes by and says ,
"Let's go to a restaurant and get some ice cream ,
" what will you do ?
This desire for freedom must be like this.
You do not stop along the way to pick another desire.

Wake
Up and Roarsatsangh
with H.W.L. Poonja
vol. 2

Found on the Web

"Just
Say OM"

"...Scientists
study it. Doctors recommend it. Millions of Americans -many
of whom don't even own crystals -practice it every day. Why?
Because meditation works
By JOEL STEIN...

Sunday,
Jul. 27, 2003
The one thought I cannot purge, the one that keeps coming
back and getting between me and my bliss, is this: What a
waste of time. I am sitting cross-legged on a purple cushion
with my eyes closed in a yoga studio with 40 people, most of
them attractive women in workout outfits, and it is
accomplishment enough that I am not thinking about them. Or
giggling. I have concentrated on the sounds outside and then
on my breath and then, supposedly, just on the present
reality of my physical statea physical state concerned
increasingly with the lack of blood in my right foot. But I
let that pass, and then I let my thoughts of the hot women
go, and then the future and the past, and then my worries
about how best to write this article and, for just a few
moments, I hit it. It looks like infinite blackness, feels
like a separation from my body and seems like the moment
right before you fall asleep, only I'm completely awake. It
is kind of nice. And then, immediately, I have this epiphany:
I could be watching television. "

"A Wiki
is a collaborative web site which visitors can edit directly in
their browsers.Seed Wiki is a wiki farm where
anyone can start a wiki..." http://www.seedwiki.com/

bokindstrand
~ ParanormalBuffalo

"...A
leading creator of "sociable robots," Cynthia
Breazeal of M.I.T., says a chief worry is that we might
try to extend rights to beings who aren't prepared for
them. Breazeal assiduously avoids calling her robots by
gendered pronouns. That even she occasionally slips when
faced with the large, beseeching eyes of one of her
creations means nothing, she says. But it must mean
something. No one accidentally calls a toaster
"he" or "she." ..."http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0331/baard.php

Henry ~
Buddhist_Healing

Vipassana
changes the spirit of businessAsia Times, 30 July 2003

"Mumbai, India
- After a 10-day Vipassana retreat southeast of Dallas,
Texas, Thomas L Freese, vice president of Freese &
Nichols, changed his
approach to business management. Motivated by an ancient
Indian
self-observation technique called Vipassana, he began to
think about
blending such values as compassion and ethics with bottom
lines and
profits in his daily work.

Are formerly
hard-headed Western businessmen falling for yet another
handful of magic dust flung from the hands of the gurus
of ancient
India? Freese was relieved. He says: "Vipassana
leads to clearer
thinking and clear thinking is good for business."

A lengthening list
of US, European and Asian corporate executives agree.
Senior staff of companies including Microsoft, Citibank,
IBM, Merrill
Lynch and Zee TV experience Vipassana as a powerful
human-resources
tool. Special Vipassana courses are being organized
worldwide for
business executives and government administrators. Freese
was part of
one such course this May in "Dhamma Siri", near
Dallas, one of six
Vipassana centers in the United States.

Vipassana means
"to see things as they really are" in the
ancient Indian
Pali language. A practical, universal tool to purify the
mind, some call
Vipassana a technology for inner peace. Others describe
it is a deep
surgical operation of the mind. An objective study of
mind-matter
interaction, Vipassana has nothing to do with any
religion, cult, dogma
or blind belief. Vipassana enhances the overall quality
of life, as I
have discovered from practicing it for more than 10
years.

Vipassana is taught
in residential courses - from the beginners' 10-day
regimen to 45-day and 60-day courses for advanced
students. Completing a
course demands discipline, will power and following such
rules as not
communicating with fellow students and the outside world
for the
duration of the course. The rule of silence until the
penultimate day of
the course is to calm and quiet the chattering mind and
turn attention
inward.

Happily, continuing
a millennium-old tradition, no fee is charged for
Vipassana courses, not even for board and lodging.
Expenses are met
solely through voluntary donations and services of
previous students.
Vegetarian buffets and simple, comfortable accommodation
are provided in
centers that are usually green, eco-friendly expanses.

The technique was
practiced back in the mists of time before being
rediscovered by Gautama Buddha, who practiced it to reach
enlightenment.
Vipassana then disappeared again, and was lost to India
500 years after
his passing. But a chain of teachers in Burma preserved
the technique in
its purity for 2,500 years.

This volition to
share merit earned helps to reduce the ego, the
apparent "I" that the Vipassana student
experiences as merely a mass of
constantly changing mind-matter phenomena. Experiencing
that impermanent
nature of reality within changes one's outlook to life
and fellow
beings. Wisdom and compassion rise to the
surface..."

All
that MattersIt
doesn't matter what Consciousness (or consciousness)
means.
It doesn't matter what subject/object or duality means.
It doesn't matter what non-duality means.
First must come Freedom.
Understanding will follow.

All that matters is following your
own heart.

That is
the only way to be free.

And being
free is all that matters.

No one can
stop you from following your heart.So no
one can stop you from being free.

That is
the only *real* choice...to follow one's own heart.

To follow
your heart your must know your heart.

So first
is Inquiry into one's heart.
Inquiry means to go *into* one's heart,
and to go deeper, and deeper, and deeper...

And
Inquiry means to *abide* in one's heart.
When speaking, let the speaking be from the heart.
When looking, let the looking be from the heart.
Even when thinking, let your heart be in the thinking.

And in the
end one is living the heart in everything,
one is following the heart in everything,
one becomes Heart.

Much as i try to ignore the lure of
this subject, i am captured by dream...We all dream - each
night, every night, four to seven dream cycles a night.
We spend so much time dreaming yet remember so very few
dreams. Why? Jung believes dreams are expressions of the
unconscious psyche (of course, it's called "the
unconscious" because it's unconscious to me, to ego,
the waking me - not because the unconscious psyche itself
is blind and deaf and dumb), where "we find the
mythological motifs or mythologems I have designated as
archetypal."Some of these archetypal figures
met in dream include the Ego, the Shadow, the Persona,
the anima/Animus, the Self, the Mother, the Father, the
Puer/Divine Child, the Kore/Maiden, the Hero, the Wise
Old Man, the Trickster, the Hermaphrodite and the
Coniunctio - those they be clad in forms more
familiar to us - Friends and Lovers, Mom & Dad, and
such.Of course, dreams
are quicksilver - rarely does one follow us across the
threshold of sleep into consciousness. Even when we wake
with traces of dream in our head, those traces trickle
away at the slightest distraction - the sound of the
alarm, insistent bladder pressure, a cat crying for its
breakfast - and the dream dissolves.In fact, the dreams
we most often remember are those whose images carry a
high enough emotional charge to break through the
threshold separating the unconscious from consciousness,
with enough intensity to remain etched in memory. This
would have to be a dream that packs quite a wallop - most
often a nightmare, though occasionally erotically charged
dreams carry enough energy to break through into
consciousness (particularly in adolescence - as I seem to
recall...).I've
recorded well over a thousand dreams in my journal over
the last decade - some years writing down dreams four to
five mornings out of seven (and I notice that my dreams
average roughly five hundred words - sometimes far more,
sometimes far less - and takes about forty-five minutes
to write down each dream - definitely a commitment of
time and discipline, not counting time spent working with
the dream later). Took a little practice learning to
retain an image, then tease details out of memory, but
soon enough became second nature.Of course, when we
practice dream work, the usual question is "What
does the dream mean?" Interpretation is thought to
aim at meaning - but no dream dictionary will capture
that quicksilver flow... Dreams are beyond meaning, which
can be too literal.Dreams have a holographic texture,
each image enfolding a multitude of meaning, like all
symbols in art, literature, poetry, music...what's the
meaning of those first four notes of Beethoven's fifth?
Or that F sharp buried in the middle of a Tchaikovsky
suite? The notes in a symphony are significant not just
in themselves, but also in relation to each other and to
the composition as a whole. Each note presents a series
of relationships focused into THIS moment, THIS sound,
and represents the relationship between creator,
creation, and hearer.Meaning arises in subjective
consciousness: it's a story told by the perceiver. Hence,
multiple perceivers means multiple meanings - even within
one person, different meanings arise, a response to the
multiple layers of images presented to consciousness. To
stick to just Freud, or just Jung, or just Hillman, is to
approach the polytheistic psyche with monotheistic
blinders on. Multiple interpretations, offered by a
variety of individuals, present a fuller, more complete
picture. Read together, they build up layered images,
flesh out the phantasm of dream. A three dimensional
portrait of the psyche often emerges.At the same time,
Hillman provides an important caveat: dream
interpretation, as commonly practice, often places dream
energies in service of the herculean ego.Like Hercules, I go
down at night into the Underworld, where I plunder the
realm, take from the dream treasures that help ME
(muscular ego) cope and succeed, upon my return to the
Waking World.Even
Jung's psychology is ego-centered. Hillman's archetypal
(imaginal) psychology relativizes the ego, takes ME off
center stage. The dream has its own dynamic: rather than
try to uncover artifacts that can be brought to the
surface and prove useful in daily life, to the Dream,
"the play's the thing." We are asked to engage
the dream, participate in the passion play - and we best
do this, by immersing ourselves in the Image...Some dreams do have
literal components - dream your mother-in-law has died,
and the next day she keels over - but these are
relatively rare, like the Thirteenth Card of the Major
Arcana actually indicating a real live death (hmm...).

CowMoon

Art by Hilary Collins

Dreams that do echo
surface events also resonate at deeper octaves: my friend
Crystal, crying in my dream, may be a clue that the
waking Crystal is sad and unhappy - something I had not
noticed - but my psyche's choice of her image could at
the same time point to emotions repressed, or depression
yet unrealized, buried within me.I do agree with the
insight that subtle nuances speak volumes in dream. Pun
imagery, in particular, runs wild. Does Psyche have a
sense of humor? No doubt - dream images, like all
components of psyche, are fluid, quicksilver - and
quicksilver - mercury - is ruled by Hermes, the
trickster, god of communication - and miscommunication.
Wherever one thing is also another, whether symbolic
ritual, or trivial pun, Hermes hides in the ambiguity,
cloaked in paradox. (Hermes - Mercury - puts an
alchemical flavor into dream work)Carl Jung - in the
first section of Symbols of Transformation, fifth volume
in his Collected Works, published by Bollingen - the
volume that catalyzed the rupture with Freud in 1912 -
writes about "Two Kinds of Thinking".One is the focused
concentration we most often think of when we hear the
term "thinking" - directed thinking, linear,
with a specific end, a goal - solve the math problem,
build the bridge - what today we call task-oriented
thinking. Jung believes this to be a relatively recent
development for our species (it could be even more recent
than Jung thinks: Julian Jaynes, in The Origins of
Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,
posits the appearance of the ego roughly 3000 years
ago... and he makes a cogent, if controversial,
argument).But
Jung believes there is a deeper layer, far older, on the
evolutionary scale. Associational thinking - drifting,
daydreaming, letting the mind wander, gathering wool -
this is where we spend most of our time.We can ponder a
difficult problem at length - but the solution often
comes when we're singing in the shower, thinking about
any and everything but...In this mode, one image flows into
another - like in a day dream, or when a mind just
wanders - which aren't just random thoughts, but words,
ideas, images related to one another one way or another.
The pun, verbal or visual, humorous or obscure, is the
link here. Dreams, even more so - no mediating ego.In dream, we are
immersed in the stuff of poetry - images wet, electric,
self-luminous, and fluid - a nighttime sensurround toon
town theater in 3-D, in which we are sometimes audience,
sometimes extra, sometimes star (at times, all
three)...we dance in elysian fields, bathe in the
wellsprings of Creativity and Pure Imagination. Is it any
wonder patterns we find there point to energies
manifesting in waking realities?Dream helps us
relate to these patterns, can bring us into conscious
harmony with the natural rhythm of life.To quote Campbell,
from the Hero's Journey (p.8)"The unconscious sends all
sorts of vapors, odd beings, terrors, and deluding images
up into the mind - whether n dreams, borad daylight, or
insanity; for the human kingdom, beneath the floor of the
comparatively neat little dwelling that we call our
consciousness, goes down into unsuspected Aladdin caves.
There not only jewels but dangerous jinn abide: the
inconvenient or resisted psychological powers that we
have not thought or dared to integrate into our lives.
And they may remain unsuspected, or on the other hand,
some chance word, the smell of a landscape, the taste of
a cup of tea, or the glance of an eye may touch a magic
spring, and then dangerous messengers begin to appear in
the brain. These are dangerous because they threaten the
fabric of the security into which we have built ourselves
and our family. But they are fiendishly fascinating, too,
for they carry keys that open the whole realm of the
desired and feared adventure of the discovery of the
self. Destruction of the world that we have built and in
which we live, and of ourselves within it; but then a
wonderful reconstruction, of the bolder, cleaner, more
spacious, and fully human life - that is the lure, the
promise and terror, of these disturbing night visitations
from the mythological realm we carry within.""...the very
dreams that blister sleep..."
- J.C.
(p.3)sweet dreams
bodhibliss

John Duff ~
StillPoint & Alan Larus ~ HarshaSatsangh

Strand
2

Photo
by Alan Larus

On
Beginning to Live More Consciously

"Each one of you is under the Law of the
Pendulum.

Each one of you feels good and then bad,
feels happy and then feels dejected.

Each one of you feels affection and liking
and then feels the opposite -
disliking -and that curious opposite to
affection for which there is no word.

This is all mechanical life. This is all
living mechanically.

This is all living in the swing of the
Pendulum of life, and as long as you do
this what you gain you will lose and so you
will always remain at the same
level of Being.

At one moment you love, at the next moment
you hate; at one moment you
feel enthusiasm, the next moment you feel
dejected; at one moment you
think you are a fine person and the next
moment you feel you are not.

This is the Law of the Pendulum which swings
to and fro.

Somehow or other we have to be no longer so
much under this inevitable
Law of the Pendulum which causes the tides to
advance and retire, which
causes the winter to be followed by the
summer, the summer by the winter,
and which in the case of your own heart
causes it to expand and contract.

The Law of the Pendulum is very well
illustrated by the action of the heart.

The heart has two phases called diastole and
systole. The diastole of the
heart is when it is receiving blood, the
systole of the heart is when it is
contracting and driving the blood through the
body.

You can see perhaps how interesting this idea
of the Pendulum is as
illustrated by the heart because when the
heart is passive and is receiving
blood it is on one side of the Pendulum, it
accepts what is coming in to it,
and then at a certain moment it changes its
rhythm and becomes active and
drives out what it has received, and this
nourishes the whole body.

Diastole is connected with a Greek verb
meaning to put in order, to arrange,
to make ready. This means that when the heart
is not doing anything but
receiving blood it is, as it were, arranging,
putting in order, making
ready for this next phase called contraction
or systole.

Systole means, in the Greek, drawing together
of what has been received
and driving it forth, as in the contraction
of the heart that drives into the
body the blood that it has received.

I have often thought that this is a very good
way of thinking about the
Pendulum in a practical sense.

We have sometimes moments of expansion and
sometimes moments of
contraction. We have moments in which things
go right and moments
in which things go wrong.

The Pendulum of our psychology, of our
emotions, of our general feelings,
swings to and fro. But when the Pendulum
swings back this should be surely
a phase in which things are put in order, in
which one consults oneself, in
which one gets things arranged rightly and
made ready before one goes
forward again.

You cannot expect always to be just the same.

Yet how many people are disappointed when,
having felt something, they
find that for the time being they no longer
feel it. Then of course they
quarrel, feel bored and so on.

In other words, the negative swing of the
Pendulum for most people is
simply a blank.

But it should not be a blank.

It should be a phase inhabited by
consciousness and by a sense of the
Work in which one collects oneself together
again and reflects, and does
not necessarily think that everything is
over, at an end.

Now if one can inhabit with consciousness
both sides of the Pendulum
swing in every centre, in every part of a
centre, one's life no longer
becomes discontented, a mere function of the
Pendulum swinging.

One learns to see things from two points of
view. One learns to take
oneself from two points of view and
especially one learns to take other
people in the same way.

Instead of being very disgusted or
disappointed or bored, one begins
to inhabit this uncivilized country in
oneself, this barbarism, with more
conscious thoughts, with memory, and then one
returns on the swing
having prepared something, and once more
re-enters into life without
being depressed and without feeling hopeless.

All this that I am speaking about to-night
has to do with seeing both
sides, the dark and the bright side,
together, through conscious memory,
through work, and it is only through work
that you can remember
both sides of the Pendulum and so gradually
pass psychologically into
the middle part of the Pendulum where
everything that we seek in this
Work lies.

This corresponds to making full circle, to
being able to go round the
circle of life so that it is no longer a
Pendulum but a circular motion
which is no longer governed by opposites. (I
have already told you that
the motion of a Pendulum is really a circular
motion seen in two dimensions.
Try to illustrate this for yourself
practically.)

Now when you go round the circle of all
experience you will begin to
include the dark side of yourself in your
consciousness and you no longer
see any contradictions such as the Pendulum
view of life gives. This means
an increase of consciousness.

This means seeing that summer and winter are
not opposites but lie on a
circle, a rhythm that is necessary.

People who live very much in opposites,
people who are always arguing
whether this is right or that is right -as we
see very obviously to-day
-are in the illusion of the Pendulum.

I will quote you a very ancient saying about
this.

As long as you stand on a basis of rigid
right and wrong you cannot make
this psychological circle in yourself, as,
for example, in the Enneagram
about which we have not spoken much recently.

The quotation is from the writings of
Kwang-ze. He says:

"All subjects may be looked at from two
points of view -from that and
from this . . . But that view involves both a
right and a wrong; and this
view involves also a right and a wrong: -are
there indeed, or are there not,
the two views, that and this? They have not
found their point of
correspondency which is called the pivot of
the Tao. As soon as one finds
this pivot, he stands in the centre of the
ring (of thought) where he can
respond without end to the changing views;
-without end to those affirming,
and without end to those denying. Therefore I
said, 'There is nothing like
the proper light (of the mind).' "

This thing called the Tao is really the Work.

It is a reconciliation of opposites in
yourself and the reaching of a new
place in which the opposites do not control
you.

It is called the Tao in ancient Chinese
esotericism. It is a Way. Tao means
a Way or a harmonizing Way..."

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can't see, can't hear
Can't know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren't always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circles in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.~ Joy Harjo ~

Benny ~

THINKING
ALLOWED Conversations On The Leading Edge
Of Knowledge and Discovery
With Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove

IN THE PROVINCE OF THE MIND
with JOHN C. LILLY, M.D.

"JEFFREY
MISHLOVE, Ph.D.:

Hello and
welcome. Today we are going to explore the province of
the mind. With me is Dr. John C. Lilly, a noted pioneer
of mystical states, of states of consciousness, and also
interspecies communication. Dr. Lilly is a former
researcher with the National Institutes of Health and the
Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. He is the author of
some five books on human-dolphin communication, including
Lilly on Dolphins, Man and Dolphin, The Mind of the
Dolphin, Communication between Man and Dolphin. He has
written many books on deep inner exploration, including
The Deep Self, The Center of the Cyclone, The Dyadic
Cyclone, and The Scientist, and he is particularly known
for Programming and Metaprogramming the Human
Biocomputer. In fact he introduced that term, the
biocomputer, into our language. Welcome, John..."